ADVANTAGES

300 000 000 years old advantages

Mammals and avians are separated by nearly 300 000 years of evolution. Consequently, the difference between mammalian and avian proteins is much more important. Thereby, generating an immune response and antibodies against a human protein is more likely to succeed in a different host (chicken) rather than a similar host (mouse or rabbit).

Chicken IgY, just like mammalian IgG, are divalent immunoglobulins although IgYs possess several structural attributes that result in increased sensitivity and affinity, with reduced background.

· lgY's Fc portion is not recognized by mammalian cellular and humoral immune components. This results in decreased background and the elimination of long-blocking incubations;

· Better coupling efficiency, IgYs antibodies are slightly larger than the IgG antibodies of mammals and have a higher glycosylation index allowing more labeling with HRP and other fluorescent molecules. This results in higher signals;

· No cross-recognition with mammalian secondary antibodies (IgGs);

· IgYs are more stable to temperature and pH variations.

Nonetheless, the structural similarities between these immunoglobulins allow IgY to be fully compatible with your current experimental protocols with little or no optimization required.